According to some estimates, nearly 2.9 million Americans are visually impaired. Many more have trouble reading due to other conditions, such as stroke or traumatic brain injury. The prevalence of vision impairment increases rapidly in the later years, particularly after age 75. Even people with the least degree of vision impairment may still face challenges in everyday life as typical everyday activities such as reading a newspaper become difficult if not impossible.
There are a number of vision assistance devices on the market to assist those whose ability to read is impaired by visual difficulties. However, one problem with the current devices is that the current devices require complex set up before they can be used. Moreover, operating current vision assistance devices can be problematic for a visually impaired person due to the heavy reliance of the current vision assistance devices on digital controls, such as a keypad, keyboard, a mouse, or a touch screen. Accordingly, there is still a need for a vision assistive device that is easy to set up and operate.